Review: 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' is one great big Dumble-snore

by Justin Chang, Los Angeles TimesNov 15, 20183 minutes

An excruciating bore just barely enlivened by stray glimpses of Hogwarts, a flicker of gay romance and a menagerie of computer-generated creepy-crawlies, "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" is enough to make J.K. Rowling fans weep in frustration, provided they can even keep their eyes open.

Presumably Rowling, her fellow producers and the top brass at Warner Bros. were thinking about those fans - meaning their capacity for pleasure and enchantment, not just their pocketbooks - when they decided to launch a series of prequels to their justly celebrated Harry Potter cycle.